thousand infantry, under E. C. Walthall,- Lee CHAP. I. having been wounded on the 17th,- and all his available cavalry. "With the exception of his rear guard," says Thomas, "his army had become a disheartened and disorganized rabble of half-armed and barefooted men, who sought every opportunity to fall out by the wayside and desert their cause to put an end to their sufferings." On Christmas morning Thomas, still continuing the pursuit, drove the enemy out of Pulaski, and chased him towards Lamb's Ferry over roads which had become almost on Conduct impassable" and through a country devoid of sustenance for man and beast." The Confederates were, however, more fleet than their pursuers; the swollen rivers and other accidents everywhere favored them, and during the 26th and 27th Hood Dec., 1864. crossed the Tennessee River. Even here he did not feel in safety, but continued his headlong retreat to Tupelo, Mississippi. From there, on the 13th of January, he sent a dispatch to the Confederate War Department requesting to be relieved from the command of the army. After consultation with General Beauregard, he issued furloughs to most of his Tennessee troops; his army, what there was of it, rapidly melted away. Four thousand of them went to join Maury at Mobile. It is hard to say what became of the rest. After the pressure of public opinion had forced the Richmond authorities to the bitter necessity of reappointing General Johnston to the command of that spectral army which was expected to oppose the triumphal march of Sherman to the North, the three corps of Hood's army which reported to him consisted of 2000 men Thomas, Report Committee Supplement. Part I., p. 379. 1865. Hood, "Advance and Retreat," p. 307. CHAP. I. Johnston, of Military Operations," 1864. under C. L. Stevenson,-S. D. Lee's successor, 2000 under Cheatham, and 1000 under Stewart; in addition to these there were, he says, little parties Narrative who gradually made their way into North Carolina, as groups and individuals, and were brought pp. 372, 373. to him at last by General S. D. Lee. The pursuit of Hood's retreating army was not continued longer by Thomas. On the 29th of December, a small force of cavalry of only 600 men, under command of Col. W. J. Palmer, of the Fifteenth Pennsylvania, went roving through North Alabama and Mississippi striking the enemy here and there, destroying one day his pontoon trains, on another day a large supply train, sabering and shooting his mules, attacking the Confederate general W. W. Russell near Thorn Hill, routing him, capturing some prisoners, burning some wagons, and then proceeding at his leisure back to camp at Decatur, after a march of over 250 miles, reporting a loss of one killed and two wounded. Mr. Davis promptly complied with Hood's request for relief, and he bade farewell on the 23d of January, 1865, to what was left of the army of 50,000 men which Johnston had led with such unfailing prudence and wisdom from Tunnel Hill to Atlanta, and which Hood had dashed to pieces against the National breastworks on every field from Atlanta to Nashville. Hood then visited Virginia, was kindly received by Jefferson Davis, with whom he always remained a favorite, even amid the impending ruin of the Confederacy, and was on his way to Texas with instructions to bring a new army from that remote but gallant State to the rescue of the falling cause, when he heard of Lee's surrender. He tried for many days to cross the Mississippi, several times, as he says, "hotly chased by Federal cavalry through the wood and cane-brakes"; but, at last, making a virtue of necessity, he surrendered to General John W. Davidson, at Natchez, on the 31st of May. CHAP. I. Hood, "Advance and Retreat," p. 311. 1865. CHAPTER II THE ALBEMARLE СНАР. ІІ. THE THE successive captures and recaptures of the town of Plymouth, in North Carolina, were episodes of the war so unimportant that they would scarcely claim a place in history were it not for the memorable naval fights in the spring of 1864 in which the Confederate ironclad Albemarle gained great distinction, and the splendid heroism of a young sailor, by which, in the autumn of the same year, she was destroyed. This famous vessel was slowly and painfully constructed, far inland, in a cornfield on the banks of the Roanoke River, about thirty miles below Weldon. The same officer who had changed the Merrimac into the ironclad Virginia used the experience acquired in that service in the building of the Albemarle. Nearly everything requisite in shipbuilding was lacking; but, in spite of all difficulties, the vessel was built at last, and slid from the bluff into the river without Leaders." Springing a leak. She measured 152 feet in length, 45 in width, and, with her armor on, drew eight feet. In general construction she resembled all the other Confederate ironclads. Her casement, or shield, was sixty feet long, sloping to the deck at an angle of forty-five degrees; plated with two courses of two Gilbert Elliott, "Battles and Vol. IV., p. 626. inch iron, rolled at the Tredegar Works. She was armed with two rifled Brooke guns, mounted on pivot carriages, so disposed that each gun commanded three portholes. Her beak was of oak, plated with two-inch iron. She was a year under construction; rumors of her progress occasionally transpired, and the brave and vigilant commander, C. W. Flusser, to whom her first sortie was to be mortal, warned the department in the summer of 1863 that a formidable craft was in preparation in the river. It would have required no considerable expedition to destroy her in the yard, but General Grant's attention was at that time fully occupied with other matters. She was not completed until April, 1864, and her first service under her captain, J. W. Cooke, was to assist General Hoke in an attack upon the town of Plymouth, which was held by a small Union force under General H. W. Wessels. Hoke's division marched down and surrounded the place, his two flanks resting on the river above and below the town. It was the task of the Albemarle to clear away the navy from the river front. The attack began on the 18th of April, and lasted all day, with no advantage to the Confederates, Wessels's troops, and the two gunboats Miami and Southfield, under the intelligent direction of Flusser, repulsing every attempt to take the place; but on the next day the intervention of the Albemarle put a different face on the affair. She dropped down the river in front of the town by night, the fire of the fort rattling harmlessly against her shield. Flusser, warned of her coming, made ready for action, and steamed up to meet her with the Miami and the Southfield chained CHAP. II. 1864. |